THEN: During the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign, one of Vote Leave’s promises was that ‘’fuel bills will be lower for everyone’. EU rules stipulated that member states could not cut VAT on domestic energy and gas below its current rate of five per cent.

“When we Vote Leave, we will be able to scrap this unfair and damaging tax,” Johnson and other Brexiters said in a joint statement. “It isn’t right that unelected bureaucrats in Brussels impose taxes on the poorest and elected politicians can do nothing.”

NOW: VAT on household energy bills will not be cut in the Chancellor’s Budget, despite calls to help families struggling with soaring prices.

Labour has been calling for the rate to be slashed from five per cent to zero for the next six months to help households get through a ‘tough winter’. But Whitehall sources have said such a move would be poorly targeted.

Tony Taylor, Grassholme, Woodthorpe, York